"Without family, no support, facing the pressure of survival in turmoil and ubiquitous insecurity, this 19-year-old girl finally chose to step into a dangerous but well-paid industry..."
In the ongoing civil war in Myanmar, those women who were forced to get involved in the sex industry because of the conflict have become a forgotten corner of the world.
This is a real interview with local journalists from Myanmar.
In a small village in Bonn, in the northern state of Rakhine, a reporter walks through muddy road and green fields and comes to a dirty house.In a waterproof tent surrounded by clothes, a girl is carefully makeup a six-inch-wide small mirror.
The hostess, who was preparing dinner, went out.The driver who sent the reporter, Mo, asked her in a loud voice, “Can you?” she knocked on her head, “Can you?” and “Then the hostess gave the driver thirty thousand yuan as a presentation fee.”
She introduced the "charging standard" in a serious tone:Is it a whole day or an hour? 300,000 kyats for a whole day, 100,000 kyats for an hour, and 200,000 kyats for a night. It is possible to skip the use of condoms, but add an extra 5,000 kyats if they need to be provided.”
The reporter chose an hour's service in some embarrassment, and then was led to the tent to wait. Soon, the girl who had been wearing makeup walked in-she was wearing a red T-shirt and black trousers. The reporter frankly showed her identity and purpose, and after hesitation, the girl finally told her story.
She came from the town of Rakhine, Buddy, and escaped from home after the outbreak of the war. From the poverty of her small home, she left school only to the elementary school, relying on the mountain to cut wood, to pick up water traffickers for life, the day was very difficult. She lived in the house of her older sister ten years old, every morning at four o'clock on the mountain to cut wood, and only back at noon, a bunch can only sell ten thousand yuan. and for this bunch of wood, she had to go up the whole day, cut almost fifty branches.
She said that she lived in the refugee camp at the beginning of her escape, and was upset even by bathing and sleeping, so that she could rely on her sister. However, her brother-in-law began to harass her, and she had to leave the street again. In confusion and despair, she went the wrong way. At the beginning, she was scared, ashamed, without friends, and no one to talk to.
According to her, there are at least ten women like her in the village of Dando and the village of Yosua.
The housewife says that in this environment of displacement, ordinary work earns ten thousand yen a day, which is not enough for a large number of homes.
A driver who regularly transported these women revealed that one to five sex workers in some villages in Bonn were not fixed in one place, but also went elsewhere to receive guests.
It has been pointed out that although prostitution is not legal in Myanmar, the industry continues to spread underground. Some practitioners have called for legal protection for women forced into sexual work for survival.
They also emphasized the importance of health protection and called for protection measures to prevent cervical cancer, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV.
During the war, the fate of these women is wrapped in the clutches of survival and dignity, and their voices are rarely heard by the world.
At the end of the interview, the girl said softly that she was not satisfied with her present life. If she can save enough money one day, she wants to go back to Budidang, where she grew up, open a small shop and live a simple and peaceful life.
Tens of thousands have become refugees since the Rakhine war broke out again on November 13, 2023. Despite the efforts of local civil society organizations to rescue, support for sex workers remains almost zero.